Create file and display file contents in Linux using cat command.

Create file and display file
contents in Linux using cat command.

There is many
way display the contents of file to the screen and there is so many way
to creating a file in Linux. The most simples way to create file is
using the cat command. Linux cat command ( concatenate ) also can be use to display
files contents to you computer screen for viewing.

Linux command name: cat

Cat command description:

The cat command is
short for concatenate files and the command will print the file contents
to the standard output
(normally your PC screen), and cat also can be use to create file on
Linux system.

Command type:

External
Linux command (disk file) and the execution file for cat located in /bin
directory.

[root@fedora ~]#
type cat

cat is hashed (/bin/cat)

[root@fedora ~]# type -t cat

file

[root@fedora ~]#

The cat command is short for concatenate files and
the command will print the file contents to the standard output
(normally on your PC screen), and cat also can be use to create file on
Linux system.

Create a file in Linux
using cat command.

Below is an example to create
using cat command to create file.

[root@fedora ~]#
cat > create-linux-file.txt

this is my file

Create file in linux using cat command

my filename is create-linux-file.txt

[root@fedora ~]# ls

anaconda-ks.cfg Desktop install.log.syslog

create-linux-file.txt install-fedora.log
X.txt

[root@fedora ~]#

[root@fedora ~]#
cat create-linux-file.txt

this is my file

Create file in linux using cat command

my file name is create-linux-file.txt

[root@fedora ~]#

The command above will create a file called linux-command-list and to finish
your work press Ctrl+d after the line break (press Enter key after your
last line of text) to denote the end of file. Please note that the
standard symbol of
redirection ' > ' (greater than) sign is necessary to create
a new file. The ls command use on above example is to verify the
existence of the newly created file.

Appends text to file using cat command.

The example below show the
cat command with the appends ' >>
' redirection symbol to add more text
to the file that we create earlier (create-linux-file.txt file).

[root@fedora ~]#
cat >> create-linux-file.txt

this is the line appends to create-linux-file.txt

this is an example on using redirection to appends text

[root@fedora ~]# ls

[root@fedora ~]#
cat create-linux-file.txt

this is my file

Create file in linux using cat command

my file name is create-linux-file.txt

this is the line appends to create-linux-file.txt

this is an example on using redirection to appends text

[root@fedora ~]#

To finish your work press
Ctrl+d after the line break. The next shell prompt suppose
to appear after you press Ctrl+d key.

Display file contents on Linux system using cat command.

There is many way to display file contents in Linux system, one of the
easiest and simplest way to display the file contents is using cat
command.

Note: Remember that we already create text file name create-linux-file.txt, now the
procedure below show how to use cat command to display the file contents
to the screen.

[root@fedora ~]#
cat create-linux-file.txt

this is my file

Create file in linux using cat command

my file name is create-linux-file.txt

this is the line appends to create-linux-file.txt

this is an example on using redirection to appends text

[root@fedora ~]#

Note:

To display the file contents you don't need any redirections sign (no
'>' or '>>'), just issue the cat command and the filename of file that
you wish to display.

All the file contents display immediately after you issue the command.

The file contents display on the line after the command, and the file
content finish before the next shell prompt.

There is many options for the cat command that you can experiment with.

[root@fedora ~]#
cat -n create-linux-file.txt

1 this is my file

2 Create file in linux using cat command

3 my file name is create-linux-file.txt

4 this is the line appends to create-linux-file.txt

5 this is an example on using redirection to
appends text

[root@fedora ~]#

The cat command with the '-n' option will display the file contents with
the numbered output lines on the screen.

The following are some of the flags and arguments that can be used for the
cat command:

-A, --show-all
=> equivalent to -vET

-b, --number-nonblank
=> number nonblank output lines

-e
=> equivalent to -vE

-E, --show-ends
=> display $ at end of each line

-n, --number
=> number all output lines

-s, --squeeze-blank
=> never more than one single blank line

-t
=> equivalent to -vT

-T, --show-tabs
=> display TAB characters as ^I

-u
=> (ignored)

-v, --show-nonprinting
=> use ^ and M- notation, except for LFD and TAB